Where is the Grande Epopée Ventoux - GEV decided?
On the climb from Veaux to Mont Serein, just past half-way.
Half the effort is done at Veaux, and the leg that leaves it is the hardest of the race per kilometre: 1,111 m of climbing in 10 km, with almost nothing back down. It opens on the steepest of the big climbs, 274 m at 17 % on average, then rises again to Col du Comte. Kilometre for kilometre, that is about a third harder than the course’s average. At the time-limit pace you leave Veaux at ten past five on Saturday afternoon and reach Mont Serein at ten past eight in the evening.
Steep ground is spread over the whole loop: a fifth of it climbs steeply and a fifth descends steeply. The leg into Veaux, from Entrechaux, is easier than the average and ends on a short, steep drop. Earlier in the race lies the longest leg. From Bout du monde to Entrechaux is 19.4 km, the longest gap between two of the six aid stations and the biggest share of the effort of any leg. It starts straight up the race’s biggest climb, to Col du Comte, right after the steep descent into Bout du monde. Later it drops steeply to Combe Arnoux.
After Mont Serein comes the last big climb, 444 m up to Mont Ventoux. From the top, the course runs downhill almost all the way to Le Sueil: the biggest descent of the race, 1,084 m in 9.3 km, steep on average. At Le Sueil more than four fifths of the effort is done; at the time-limit pace it is twenty past eleven on Saturday night.
The last two legs are the easiest of the loop. One more steep drop, from Chapelle Piaud to Portail Saint Jean, comes before Plan de Laval; after it, the final 7.7 km back to Malaucène cost barely more than the same distance on the flat. The page lists no cut-off before the finish, only the time limit. At the time-limit pace you reach the finish in Malaucène at ten past two on Sunday morning.
Organiser's distances and heights; Pendio's shares and clock.